Vital support is on its way to voluntary and community organisations across England, as the Big Lottery Fund today announces close to £50 million in awards from its BASIS (Building and Sustaining Infrastructure Support) programme.

As the sector takes on the challenges of the economic downturn, the funding will provide extra support in improving the efficiency and impact of VCS services. A total of 119 projects will receive funding to strengthen third sector infrastructure through national or local initiatives.

Sanjay Dighe, Chair of the Big Lottery Fund’s England Committee, said: “At a time when the country faces one of the most difficult periods in decades, this funding will be critical in helping the sector cope with the strains of the economic downturn. More and more people are facing the hardship of the credit crunch, leaving many VCS organisations feeling the pressure of a high demand for services, while resources dwindle.

“The BASIS awards will strengthen the sector through a wide range of partnerships to provide expert, consistent and sustainable services, leaving the VCS well equipped to increase efficiency and maximise impact. This is particularly important within the current economic climate but also paves the way for a stronger sector at local and national level  for many years to come.”

The latest BASIS awards specifically target projects that fill the highest priority gaps in the current VCS infrastructure support, ensuring the sector’s wide spectrum of organisations can access relevant high-quality assistance.

Welcoming the awards, Stuart Etherington, CEO of NCVO, said: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to take forward this exciting programme which aims to help hundreds of voluntary and community sector infrastructure organisations better understand and communicate the impact they make.  

“The current economic climate presents a range of challenges to voluntary and community organisations, including funding uncertainty and increased demand for services.  Helping voluntary and community sector infrastructure organisations to strengthen the support they give has never been so important.”

“We look forward to working with our partners, and to building on some of the excellent work that goes on up and down the country.”

Amongst the awards is £712,029 for the Investing in Social Enterprise Expansion (I SEE) project, led by the Social Enterprise Coalition. The initiative aims to grow and develop the infrastructure of the social enterprise sector through business and peer support and has five main delivery partners in addition to the Coalition: Coin Street Community Builders;  The Plunkett Foundation,  REalliance CIC,  the School for Social Entrepreneurs;  and Social Enterprise East of England.

Jonathan Bland, Chief Executive of the Social Enterprise Coalition, said:  “The BASIS funding gives us the ability to work with a number of partners to develop and pilot new initiatives. This is a great opportunity which will help support the growth of social enterprise across all sectors.

“Social enterprises have a real role to play in rebuilding a strong economy as businesses with strong social and environmental values.  Like all businesses, they need investment and support and this funding is an important step to provide the back-up they need.”  

Campaign for Learning receives £705,477 for its England-wide National Family Learning Network: The Big Impact Project to improve the quality of learning services by developing and improving training materials, sharing best practice and introducing a mentoring scheme. It will also improve project delivery evaluation, improve skills associated with sustainable funding and lobby policy makers and statutory bodies to improve the profile of the sector.

Tricia Hartley, Chief Executive of the Campaign for Learning, said: "The National Family Learning Network is delighted to be receiving funding from the Big Lottery Fund to support the infrastructure of family learning. This recognises the central importance of family learning in tackling inequalities, raising aspirations and enhancing community cohesion.

“The Network brings together three national charities - the Campaign for Learning, NIACE and ContinYou - to offer support to practitioners working with five million families across the country. The award will transform our ability to provide support for the diverse spectrum of organisations across England that provide a huge range of opportunities for families to learn together, explore their hidden talents and develop a passion for learning that, in many cases, will be a first step to improving their life chances."

The largest of today’s grants, £749,503, is awarded to NCVO for its Value of Infrastructure Programme. The England-wide project, will be delivered in partnership with Triangle Consulting and the Third Sector Research Centre. Activities will be based on five themes: awareness and skills; common outcomes framework for infrastructure; evidence of 'what works'; funders and infrastructure value; and supporting objectives.

Download a full list of all 119 projects to receive funding (xls. 69KB) 
- 69KB

Today’s awards follow the success of the first round of BASIS that awarded close to £100 million between December 2006 and January 2008 to over 200 projects supporting third sector infrastructure.

To help identify the priorities for BASIS 2, BIG carried out a consultation between August and November 2007 with national and local organisations including funders, frontline organisations and providers of voluntary and communty sector support services.

Further Information

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours contact: 07867 500 572
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030
Textphone:  0845 6021 659

Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

Notes to Editors

• BASIS is the first Big Lottery Fund programme to focus solely on developing voluntary and community sector infrastructure. The scheme aims to fund a more expert, consistently available and sustainable set of support services for front line voluntary and community organisations across England.
• The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out half the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
• BIG is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since June 2004. The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £22 billion has now been raised and more than 300,500 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.